Disclaimer: I don't own moulin rouge or Satine and I'm not writing this for profit. So don't sue me. I have no money. That's not to say I dislike money, so if you have some you want to send me that's ok too. I don't know who wrote the song but it wasn't me. Ok. Happy happy joy joy.

Harold Zidler looked out over the bleak grey sky. The Moulin Rouge looked a lot less impressive during the day, without all the electric lights and swirling colors. Everything around him in fact, seemed to have lost its interest. He heard Marie crying in the next room and his heart sank even lower. She entered and gently put her hand on his arm.

"Honey, you better come now." She said, shaking head to toe. He looked at his wife. Her face was wet and her eyes were red. Her skin hung loosely on her body, she had lost too much weight to quickly and there were lines etched firmly in her forehead that hadn't been there last time he looked at her. He allowed himself to be led into the other room.

The walls were painted cotton-candy-pink and in the center of the room there was a bed with white lace sheets, beside the bed a grim looking doctor knelt, in the bed lay a girl he barely recognized. Her skin was so pale it seemed translucent and her usually vibrant hair was limp and wet with sweat but the worst part was her eyes, sunken into two dark circles and starring straight ahead.

Harold looked for the little girl he had sung and played with, the girl who's eyes lit up when she laughed, who had a voice like a song bird and a flair for drama and art and loved anything beautiful. Here there was only a zombie to serve as what once had been his daughter.

He held her slender hand in his own. "Simone" he called softly, still searching for his beloved. Her lips quavered feebly but no sound came out. "Simone, it's Daddy." Her lips were still again. Marie was weeping silently, unable to speak.

"She's gone" the doctor said heavily. "I'm so sorry." Harold's lips quivered and he buried his face in his hands, knowing it was true but feeling a inevitable sense of disbelief. His little diamond who he would have walked to china and back just to see her smile, gone. He would never again here her voice or feel her hand upon his own. Marie and thrown herself upon the bed beside her daughters body, unable to control herself. Harold thought their lives in a way, all ended that day.

Unfortunately they didn't. The next few weeks were unbearable but he bore them somehow. There was a funeral, a service and after that he slipped into darkness. He stayed in his rooms, eating only enough to survive, feeling the emptiness of the house with out the pitter-patter of little feet or the bursts of high singing that usually filled the apartment. Everything brought back memories. The rug where she spilled grape juice, the hat stand; didn't she used to wear a big blue floppy hat? The stairs, remember how she used to slide down it, her red hair flying behind her?

Unable to stand it anymore he fled to house, roaming aimlessly through the darkened streets of Paris, looking for somewhere, anywhere he could escape to among the city lights. Then he saw her, the ghost. He rubbed his eyes, it couldn't be, but she was still their, supporting another girl, her fair face shining with delight, her eerily familiar red curls strew messily down her back. Both of the girls singing in rather loud voices and wearing large floppy hats.

"Who ever thought the sun will come crashing down, my life in flames, my tears complete the pain" she sung. She had a sweet voice, even when she was rather drunk. Just like Simone.

"We fear the end, the dark as deep as river bed, my book of life incomplete without you here," sung the blonde.

"Alone I sit and reminisce. Sometimes I miss your touch, your kiss, your smile. And meanwhile you know I never cry," sung the Simone look-alike.

"Cause inside you know our love will never ever die," they sung this verse together, or tried to. They ended up sing over each other and breaking out laughing at random intervals.

"Everything's gonna be alright," they screeched. "Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be alright. Together we can take this one day at a time." They turned away down another street although their singing still carried to his ears. He remember suddenly how the rest of the song went.

"I never thought my heart will miss a single beat." he sung softly to himself. "Caress your hand as I watch you while you sleep. So smooth, I weep as I search within. To find a cure to bring you back again."

He was still singing it as he walked home, smiling for the first time since he'd lost Simone. Maybe everything would be alright.

"I'd give my life to only see you breathe again, hand in hand as we walk on the white sands, to hear your voice rejoice as you rise and say this is the day that I wake pray okay. I miss you much, I wish you'd come back to me, you see I waited lifetime, 'cause you're my destiny."

He didn't remember that it was christmas until he got home and was turning the key in the door.

Cause

Everything's gonna be alright

Everything's gonna be okay

Everything's gonna be alright

Together we can take this one day at a time

On Christmas morning I woke up rather late to the smell of sausages cooking. I smiled and didn't open my eyes, basking in happiness. Christmas had always been my favorite holiday, I remember waking up at the crack of dawn and sneaking into Alice's room to wait for the rest of the house to wake, my whole body shaking with anticipation for the pile of presents that I knew would be awaiting me.

I knew today the present pile would be a much smaller than it was with Daddy but that didn't much bother me, I was with Alice and we had bought a small turkey and potatoes and we could have a real feast plus I had bought two tickets for a show at the local theater as a surprise for Alice. I heard Alice come into the room singing merrily to herself.

"Hark the Harold Angels sing glory too the new born king, la la la la da da," she sung. I snorted, she didn't know the words. I felt her weight as she sat down on my bed. I kept my eyes closed but I was laughing. She leaned forward and kissed my forehead. "Out of bed sleepy head!" she shouted as she pulled the off the covers. "You've got presents!"

Finally I opened my eyes and saw sunlight was streaming through the little window of our rented flat and the dirty streets outside had become white frosted over night.

"Its snowing!" I threw off my blankets completely and rushed to the window, forgetting my age and pains for once. I was ten again. Beside me Alice was beaming. He hair had begun to turn white recently and she new lines around her eyes, although she was only twenty-five. Today she looked as youthful and lighthearted as a little girl.

It was the happiest I'd been in a long time. We had sausage for breakfast and didn't get dressed until dinner. I got less presents than I had in the past but I appreciated the ones that year more than ever before.

Alice gave me a had knit scarf and I wondered briefly how she had managed to make it with out me seeing. Alice's husband sent us a gift basket with wine and fruit and a note saying he hoped to see us soon which for some reason caused Alice to cry. Daddy sent us both a pair of funny floppy hats with feathers sticking out the top of them, Alice's was pink and mine was blue. Alice laughed with delight when she saw them and thrust hers upon her head where it stayed for the rest of the day and it scarcely ever came off after that. Also in the package from Daddy there was a pretty hand sewn pillow and a card that said "to mummy, with love Juliette." Then it was my turn to cry.

I remembered the package that I had sent Juliette, it contained a French tea-set and the book Alice in Wonderland, I hadn't been able to wrap in without soaking the wrapping paper with my tears, finally Alice had taken over. I knew that no matter what happened I would make sure I saw Juliette again.

At four Alice and I got dressed. Alice was wearing a dark emerald dress and I a scarlet one. She's done something with her hair that made her gold curls look like a halo and put me in mind of an angel. The low cut of her dress revealed a pale gold chain necklace. I remembered giving it to her on another Christmas, years ago. It used to be our mothers. Funny that she still has it, I don't think I still have anything from back then.

I felt a tugging at my heart that I didn't understand but I smiled and helped her serve dinner. Alice had a knack for reading ky emotions like no one else and I didn't want anything but pure bliss for her today. We had a lovely dinner and I have never been more thankful for the simple pleasures of life, a warm house, good food and Alice.

We took a carriage to the theater, there was a special christmas show, we were sitting in the balcony and being back in a theater I felt a hollow longing in my stomach that I hadn't felt in a long time. The urge to perform. I wanted to be on stage, with everyone looking at me. It was a ballet and we had a wonderful time, it was so nice to be out doing something, not just working or wasting away or wasting away while working. Life was what you make it and I wanted to make something of it.

While Alice was in the toilets I lingered near the stage. I saw a girl with dark hair big eyes, wearing an assortment of black garments being yelled at by a man with greased back grey hair and a stripped scarf.

"Antonia, we can't tolerate this anymore, you're a great actress, beautiful, but you've got to show up for the rehearsals and the play for that matter!"

"But-"

"I don't want to hear it! You're out!"

"My friend-"

"Out!"

"Fine!" She turned on her heal and headed from the door, pulling her black shawl around her thin body. She saw me and she stopped dead. She stared at me, her mouth open, her eyes slightly mad. I raised a delicate eyebrow at her and she shook her head to clear it before continuing toward the exit, looking at me suspiciously over her shoulder. I was puzzled but soon forgot that when Alice found me.

We stopped at a bar and had a couple drinks. Ok more than a couple, I lost count after awhile. Then we wandered though the snow frosted street sing carols and holding hands, not to mention attracting funny looks. We sung ever song we knew and some we didn't. How we found out way home is still a mystery. All we could do was collapse into our beds, clothes on. We would suffer in the morning, hangovers and all, but isn't that what happiness is, the intervals between sadness.